As we reported here, some local Samoans belonging to the Samoan American Pacific Organization lost loved ones in the Sept. 29 tsunami that hit the South Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa. The group meets twice a week at the South Park Neighborhood Center in West Seattle.

During their Wednesday, Oct. 14 meeting a special visitor came with a banner to sign with well-wishes. Siniva Tosi Driggers is a retired registered nurse and Federal Way resident from American Samoa.

She is also the program coordiator for the Samoan National Nursess Association in Washington, located in Tacoma, and has been taking the banner around to Seattle area Samoan groups to sign before taking it to her homeland Sunday, Oct. 18.

The banner was first signed at a candlelight vigil in Tacoma's Hyde Park Oct. 3. where more than $1,000 was raised for Samoan victims though World Vision.

"I coordinated a Samoan medical team of 10, including a Samoan doctor from California, an emergency medical technical and nurses," said Driggers. "We will stay two weeks. Two more groups from our association will then take our place.

"We plan to hang the banner at the Lyndon B. Johnson Medical Center. That's where we plan to be working. But who knows? Maybe they will need us out in the villages.

"I know my immediate brother is OK ( in American Samoa), but I don't know yet about my extended family. I feel sad and yet there is nothing we can do about it. We need to share and praise each other together. We are very religious in a lot of ways. We know that God is in control, and taking care of us. We have to be together at this time of tragedy. With the banner's signatures we're sending our love and comforting thoughts to those in the hospital."